Museum boiled down. Eminent authorities treat special topics, and its articles are often monographs. It is an authority, as well as a reflection of current views. It needs however to be accompanied by Vapereau, Thomas, Drake, or other compend of Men of the Times, for living men are not treated. It gives the phonograph in science, but not the Earl of Beaconsfield in biography. This exclusion is often unsatisfactory. In physics and biology most important changes have been made from the previous edition, as the ad vance of science has rendered necessary. Much complaint was made of the eighth edition, that its science was not much in advance of the seventh; and the editors seem determined to ward off like charges now. An American reprint, with some drawbacks, is appearing at five dollars a volume. The English "And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin, "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, to The choice of Americans will ordinarily fall upon one of these cyclopedias thus far mentioned. It is not, however, because there are not others worthy of consideration. This improves the fitness of things materially; Cyclopædia is founded in part on the unfortunate- but the introduction of an entire new line is ly named Penny Encyclopædia, and is divided totally inadmissible, except to a Collier Folio into four grand sections: a biographical part, Corrector. I have always thought the following wherein it is one of the most copious, partic-arrangement would cure the difficulty; and it ularly for subjects of other countries, and in-involves only the change of the word "there" cludes living persons; a Gazetteer; a section of to where; unless we add, as I certainly should Natural History; and one of Arts, Sciences and (and which Mr. Grant White does in his text), Miscellanies. Specialists were often employed the change of "flowers" to bowers, a change on the articles. It makes twelve quarto volumes, first made by the "Corr. Fo. 1632": and can be bought at prices varying from $60 upwards. It has 7,000 wood-cuts, an atlas, and is in extent one of the most comprehensive of English Cyclopedias. The Encyclopædia Metropolitana, although finished thirty-odd years ago, is by no means superseded in many ways. It makes twenty-nine quarto volumes; has four grand divisions; the historical and biographical section is in chronological order; the other sections are Pure Science, Applied Science, and Miscellaneous. Various of the important articles have also appeared separately. Richardson's Dictionary, for instance, was originally issued as a part of it. There are others of reputable character like the National Cyclopædia, published in London, thirteen volumes, costing $60; the Iconographic, six volumes in octavo and quarto, illus trated, costing $50; and of lesser bulk, Dick's in three volumes, $15; Brande's Cyclopædia of Literature, Science and Art, three volumes, $20 - all of which are on the outer verge of popularity, though doubtless to be commended by such as make daily use of them. Indeed, almost any fair book of reference, thoroughly understood, and used with a frequency that gives facility of consultation, and a knowledge of what to expect from it, is every way better than the best, slightly comprehended, and rarely used. There is a general lack of acquaintance, among most people, with books of reference. More buy them than use them, at least intelligently. JUSTIN WINSOR. This slight change of arrangement, and of "And with the juice of this," holding up in his hand the I 66 Were I printing a 'Shakespeare," I think I should certainly so arrange this beautiful passage. may add that the change of "flowers" to bowers is not absolutely required; though I do think the context makes it very likely and plausible. Careless Transpositions. In scores of passages in the First Folio, the carelessness of the compositor in transposing words, lines, or halflines, is the cause of their obscurity. About the only merit of old Z. Jackson's comments (1819) is that, being a practical printer, he was able to ities occurred. Generally, however, the exercise suggest where and why many of these irregularof a little common sense will rectify them. In sages, where the beauty is marred by a line in Troi. and Cres., act I, sc. i, is one of those pasone place, and a half line in another, having been shuffled out of their proper order. I give it as we have it in the Globe Edition: In the 5th line, in the Folio, the sentence ends "Troilus. I tell thee I am mad Globe Obeli. The distinguished Editors of the PROF. DELIUS is lecturing in Bonn on Shakspere's Henry VIII, part of which Mr. Spedding, Mr. Tennyson, and Mr. Browning, followed by the Cambridge editors and the leading mem- Misprints in Concordance. In Mrs. Cow- Globe Shakespeare mark with an obelus (†) the bers of the New Shakspere Society, give to den Clarke's invaluable Concordance to Shake-passages and lines which, in their judgment, Fletcher. Prof. Delius intends to combat this somewhat formidable host, and to maintain that speare occur two similar and amusing typograph- have "been corrupted in such a way as to affect the earlier English critics who assigned the whole ical errors, worthy of note and correction. The the sense, no admissible emendation having been play to Shakspere were better judges.- Academy. | first is on page 506, col. 1, line 18: where, proposed." I have, however, noted some of these obelized passages that yield an easy interpretation, due regard being had to the poet's style and idiom. As an example, cf. Henry V: IV, i, 262: "What is thy soul of adoration?" The King is addressing "Ceremony," in the well-known soliloquy where this line occurs. The pronominal adjective "thy" is transferred from "adoration" to "soul," by a poetic license common enough with Shakespeare, where his verse or rhythm requires it; this gives us What is the soul of thy adoration?" Another idiom of the poet is the use of the subjective genitive, 66 an idiom which we find every few pages, and one tion by neglecting it. In King Lear (IV, vii, her 46 touching scene where Cordelia is bending over child-changed" father, and anxiously awaiting his awaking from a sleep that she hopes may restore his soundness of mind. usually printed, she says: As read a more mournfully unsatisfying tale. It is painful without any good purpose. The style and, unless we are greatly mistaken, she will one A far healthier mind and steadier hand have left to take its first step forward with one foot two. found wanting; the other proved true, but death One was weighed in the balances and took him. Between them the girl's heart was wrung; and, as misfortunes never come single, her widowed mother's property was lost into the bargain, leaving her to the bitterness of office"Restoration, hang thy medicine on my lips! seeking in Washington. But better and brighter Here the first thing to be done is to delete the days succeeded. The story is told with naturalcomma after "restoration;" then apply the sub-ness and simplicity, and two of the figures in it, jective genitive construction to "thy medicine," the elder Starkenburg and Mr. Bartle, are very which will accordingly mean "the medicine to cure thee;" and thus the sentence is properly explained: "Let restoration hang on my lips the medicine to cure thy griefs;" or "Let my kisses be the medicine that will restore thee to thy former health." Zanesville, O., May 6, 1878. NEW NOVELS. J. C. The Harpers, backed by the historic success of their "Library of Select Fiction," have begun a "Library of American Fiction," "to be devoted exclusively to the works of American authors." Two stories, Esther Pennefather and Justine's Lovers, simultaneously introduce it to the public. The volumes resemble those of the other library in size and proportion, but are printed in larger type, and bound in covers which are, to say the least, of an original and striking design. The story of Esther Penne father is described by the publishers as "a novel of extraordinary power, fascination, and striking originality;" and the writer of it, Alice Perry, is presented as "a young author whose first published book gives promise of still larger performance in the future." This presentation of the author we are, on the whole, inclined to accept; but the description of the book is, in our judgment, entirely overdone. Esther Pennefather is a young teacher in a girls' school, who comes under the spell of a magnetic principal, and out of infatuation with her, and to save her from a fancied unpleasantness, sacrifices herself in marriage to a vulgar "drummer," and dies dismally at the end. It is long since we have well drawn. It is moderately entertaining, Should ministers write novels? Yes, if they reader a very good idea of Mr. Savage himself, was the young pastor of the Congregational church therein. Tom Winthrop was a "freethinking" friend living a little way up river. In addition there are deacons, ladies, squires, and others, as the plays say. The story is the recital of the Reverend Forrest's emancipation from the "thraldom" of creeds and so forth, and of the course of his true love which did not run smooth. Theologies are discussed in the dialogue, and the "improved" religious beliefs of modern times are generously ventilated. Mr. Savage has succeeded very well in the structural and purely literary part of the work; but his argumentation does not impress us very deeply; and we differ from him decidedly as to the propriety and wisdom of defending one's own religious opinions by caricaturing those of others. But he writes with earnestness, naturalness and spirit; and some of his passages are very effective. We dislike, however, the introduction of such episodes as that of Mr. Smiley's daughter. [Lee & Shepard.] Church life is again turned to account, though in a different way, by Mrs. Stowe, in Poganuc People [Fords, Howard & Hulbert], only the past of fifty or seventy-five years ago. Things church is in Connecticut, and the time the sleepy were lively in Poganuc, nevertheless. The "Piscopals" had come in and set up an opposition "meetin'," and though no daily paper brought telegraphic reports of telephones and phonographs to astonish the natives, there were ""lection," and Fourth of July “trainin”,” and appleparings and the regular "revival," to fill out the round year. This is the sort of life which goes on in this book; a life of old-fashioned “courtin'," and Yankee dialect, and sectarian divisions; set against a glowing background of New England scenery. The subject is one which Mrs. Stowe has before handled; she here only gives the kaleidoscope another turn. The Godson of a Marquis, by André Theuriet, appears as No. IX in Appleton's "Collection of Foreign Authors." No novel in this series yet has pleased us more than Gérard's Marriage, by the same author, and in exquisite style and in all qualities of interest this is the equal of that. By reason of its materials, however, it falls below that for the purpose of those readers who are particular about their company. The godson of the marquis was the marquis's illegitimate son, whose ignoble birth stood after in the way of his honorable marriage to a lovely girl. Over this hindrance the unfortunate godson almost stumbled into an intrigue with a married woman, but happily was saved from it; the repentant marriage of his father and mother finally bringing his love troubles to There can be no doubt what the purpose of an acceptable solution. This, as will be seen, Rev. M. J. Savage is in Bluffton. Mr. Savage is is a decidedly Frenchy plot, but it must be the pastor of the Unitarian Church of the Unity, said that the wondrous delicacy and refineBoston; and a radical of the radicals. He began ment of Theuriet relieve it of all life as an Orthodox Congregationalist. His ness. There are passages in it of great beauty, transition from the one position to the other has and the characterization is masterful and yet been, of course, a marked one. No one familiar | easy. with the workings of his mind and the incidents of his career will fail to discover his own inner experience, if not some details of his outer history, photographed in this novel. Bluffton was a city on the Mississippi River. Rev. Mark Forrest, whose pen-portrait on page 23 will give the coarse We have reserved to the last in this enumeration a novel which as a source of pure, wholesome, and unalloyed enjoyment we think surpasses any of the others; we are almost ready to say all of them put together. This is Susan Morley's Margaret Chetwynd [J. B. Lippincott & Co.] It is an English story of large proportions dies and Find an Echo in the Chambers of the was written by Prof. E. A. Abbott, Head and careful workmanship, marred by no extrava- Soul." Since neither in title or preface is any Master of the City of London School. It gances of style, nor monstrosities of character, principle of selection indicated, we cannot look purports to be an autobiographic memoir of nor improbabilities of incident, nor vulgarities for much plan or arrangement in the volume. one of the Seventy Disciples, and is a mirof wickedness; but full of agreeable people, Still one would hardly expect to find Emerson's ror of our Lord's life and times. It is as and engrossed with an interesting family history, "Snow Storm," Burns's "Prayer in the Prospect large a success as any such peculiarly difficult which takes the reader into the very intellectual, of Death," and "Hiawatha's Wooing," occurring social, and spiritual interior of the mother coun- in this order. Besides the authors whose names essay can be; distinguished by its thorough try, presenting at almost every point a picture appear in all anthologies, there are other less study of materials, a careful handling of a which it is a pleasure to look upon. There is an known, but not less deserving, favorites, such as delicate theme, a reverent and tender spirit, indescribable air of good breeding about the Miss Muloch, and R. M. Milnes; and only two and a rich and beautiful style. Its power to book, which sets it apart by itself from the great or three poems in the book seem quite unworthy interest will depend on the taste of the mass of its kind, and though there may be places of insertion. In a few extracts from the older reader. There are minds which will deeply in it which are weak as compared with the poets some antiquated words are explained in enjoy its glowing pictures of scene and general fabric, it is as a whole singularly well the margin, but the Scotch quotations, which incident, and its imaginative embellishment designed, woven and colored; a work in which certainly need a glossary as much as Chaucer, of the Gospel record, conceived from the any cultivated taste must find great satisfaction. are left without notes. Many people, who would contemporary standpoint; conceived too with Hoping that many of our readers will take it in readily understand militant, sothfastnesse, and rare ability and good taste. To others its hand for themselves, we shall not injure it for behove, would be puzzled by keek, ase, and fuffin. them by giving here any hint of its very ingenious We notice two strange mistakes. Under the very contrast, as shown against the grand plot, or of the striking company of characters title "Disasters," a half-dozen lines from Long-simplicity of the Scripture itself, will reveal which it assembles; but we are sure that if their fellow's "Hiawatha" are given as anonymous; minds are at all like ours, they will join with us and, similarly, the selection "How to Live," also in bestowing upon it almost unqualified praise. styled anonymous, consists of the last sentence in It is the one novel of the present lot which we Bryant's "Thanatopsis," the closing lines being should read if we could read but one. Of Auerbach's Landolin, Russell's The Fall of Damascus, Rothmell, and other works under this head, we are obliged to defer notice. THE COLLECTED POETRY. HE appearance of a new volume of Poems of Places, devoted to Russia, is very opportune. It is a little surprising to see how much of a classical interest the country has. Connected with the Crimea, we find the sad lament of Iphigenia in Tauris, and under Bessarabia two elegies from Ovid's Tristia, newly rendered into English hexameters and pentameters by Mr. Longfellow himself. The story of Prometheus belongs to the Caucasus, and is given in four forms, in Mrs. Browning's translation from Æschylus, and in the later versions of Goethe, Shelley, and our own Lowell. William Morris, a prince among story-tellers, brings us back to Colchis and the Golden Fleece. Among historical themes, the Fall of Poland, the March to Moscow, and once attract attention. The book of Favorite Poems, although no hint of the fact is given, proves to be a reprint, page for page, preface, index, and all, with the addition of perhaps a third more poems, of a collection before published. In other days, the compiler, Mr. J. H. Head, gave his work the following wordy title: "Jewels from the Quarry of the Mind, Pearls Gathered from the Shore of Life, Buds and Blossoms that Make Glad the Garden of the Heart, Chimes that Ring out Sweet Melo altered to read thus: By an unfaltering trust in Him who came MINOR NOTICES. The Natural History of Atheism. By J. S. defects. There is a subtle tone of rationalism in its pages which will produce a feeling of uneasiness in some quarters. In our judgment no book could be more scientifically or essentially Christian. Of its lofty, spiritual intent there can be no question, and its scholarship and dignity are of the highest order. That the New York Observer should have refused an advertisement of the book is, on the whole, the best joke of the season. Artist Biographies. Rembrandt. Joshua Rey nolds. Claude Lorraine. 3 Vols. [Houghton, Osgood & Co.] It is a most significant sign of the times Of the information presented in these that one who has had a good reputation for three latest of Mr. Sweetser's excellent little orthodoxy (we assure the reader that we volumes, that in the first is perhaps most know what "orthodoxy" really is, but never picturesque, that in the second most reconmean to tell) should come forward to defend dite, that in the third most entertaining. Theism against prevalent fashions of athe- Rembrandt is as shadowy a figure as was his istic thought, in Prof. Blackie's broad and style; Claude has hardly been known in litgenerous way. He denounces the damnato- erature-only by his works; Reynolds was ry clause of the Athanasian Creed, and the the cherished intimate of all the English doctrine of eternal punishment, with the notables of his age. As different as were same vigor which he uses in handling the the worlds they lived in are the schools of "disease of the speculative faculty" called art these three men represent; the books atheism. The world is to him the "manifes- confront each other like pictures in a contation of that self-existent, self-energizing, trast. We are glad to see that Mr. Sweetser all-present, all-controlling, all-moulding, rea- finds reason to soften the traditional portrait sonable Unity, whom we justly call God." of the great Dutch master; and for his painsIf this is called Pantheism, our author is taking and laborious search after the facts unterrified by the name, and quite willing to of Claude's life, we are under great obligabear the reproach of it in company with St. tions to him. The lists of each 'painter's Paul. The book bears in every chapter the works, accompanying the several volumes of Hebrew morality, of love of knowledge and signs of a union of Greek culture with this series, are alone of great value. beauty joined to conscience and religious romance. "God in all and through all and for all, is the only formula that can explain these things Without God evolution, continuity of nature, natural selection, conservation of energy, or whatever other phrases happen to have currency for the hour, are mere sound and smoke." Philochristus. [Roberts Brothers]. Rome in Canada. By Charles Lindsey. [Toronto: Lovell Brothers.] This is an important book from the side of the Protestant. The Roman Catholic will laugh at it-or scowl. The author is a Canadian journalist, who has given much attention to political affairs in the provinces, and studied up this their ecclesiastical aspect with evident thoroughness and care. The book grows out of a firm conviction that the 2 Favorite Poems. Selected from English and American there attracted a good deal of attention. It Church of Rome is bent on securing civil is anonymous, but we have no doubt that it supremacy in Canada. It contains a good 1 Poems of Places. Edited by H. W. Longfellow. Russia. Houghton, Osgood & Co. Authors. T. Y. Crowell. This work originated in England, and has deal of historical information, which is really valuable; of some of its argumentation and conjecture we are not so sure. It is written with manifest ability, and is well worth the attention of all who have special interest in the subject, which is one that concerns the United States as well as Canada. Mr. George M. Baker has brought College; a born mathematician, an enthusiastic | youngest. The English in Ireland, a reply by "T. of Cincinnati; which illustrates, in a very striking manner, the lead which this city is taking in the patronage of art. — Heart's Ease is the title of a little knotted set of Scripture excerpts and poetical snatches, compiled by Miss Rose Porter and published by A. D. F. Randolph & Co.-Wilmington, N. C., is the place of publication of The South Atlantic, "a monthly magazine of Literature, Science and Art," edited by Mrs. Cicero W. Harris. Its appearance is creditable. — Cassell, Petter & Galpin, London, Paris, and New York, have begun the publication of The Magazine of Art, an illustrated monthly, of generous proportions and handsome appearance, devoted to the exposition of art principles, work, and literature. Single copies, 25 cents. - James Comper Gray's Biblical Museum [A. D. F. Randolph & Co.] is precisely such a commentary as its title suggests: a curiously arranged compilation of the curiosities of Scriptural interpretation and illustration. There is little or no rubbish in it, however, and for popular uses it has a distinctive and genuine value. For unlearned readers of the Bible who want to look beyond the mere text into the moral purpose of it, and who like clear and practical explanation and striking embellishment of anecdote and extract, it is excellent. Volume III on the Old Testament, covering Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, is received. It is not often that the public demand for a book is so great as to prevent the publishers from sending copies of it to the press for notice; but this we are assured is the case with the late Bishop Marvin's To the East by Way of the West [St. Louis: Bryan, Brand & Co.], of which 12,000 copies have been printed and sold within two months. Bishop Marvin was appointed by the College of Methodist Bishops to pay a missionary visit to China, and, setting forth in 1876, he ex- Jansen, McClurg & Co.'s Catalogue (No. 2) tended his trip to Japan, India, Egypt, and comprises about one thousand titles of standard Syria, returning home by way of Germany and books in all classes, including many recent imEngland. His sudden death in November last, portations, and not a few old and rare editions before the publication of this narrative, gives to and choice copies. There is also a special list of it a peculiar and pathetic interest. Its value lies works on early western history. Prices are given, not in any freshness of materials, for he goes and some bibliographical notes add to the value over ground made familiar by other travelers; of the pamphlet. - Robert Clarke & Co. publish but in his judgments of what he saw, which are A General Catalogue of Choice Books for the Lithose of a wise, discriminating, earnest-minded brary, a classified list of about 8,000 titles of man of missionary spirit. Yet his narrative, standard works, by ancient and modern authors, purely as such, is entertaining; remarkable for arranged in convenient form for the guidance of the simplicity of the man behind it, and for its librarians and private buyers. Prices are given, unpretending literary style. The book is a cred-making the book a very useful one for frequent itable one to its publishers and to their city. The Catalogue of the Public Library of the City of Taunton, Mass., E. C. Arnold, Librarian, is a new and valuable addition to the limited number of good catalogues, and will be a useful book of reference in any except the very largest libraries. In addition to the alphabetical list of titles and authors it contains a Classified Index, arranged under the general heads of Theology, Science, Art, Literature, History, Geography, Biography, Poetry, Drama, and Fiction. Such an index will save much time to the student, and to the librarian, who is often expected to furnish such information from memory. The cross references from pseudonyms to the real names of authors, and the purposes of reference. (25c.)-The 49th Exhisuggested authorship of recent books published bition of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the present anonymously (the No Name Series, for instance), Mr. G. A. Wentworth's Elements of Geometry season, is signalized by the issue of a burlesque give the catalogue a peculiar value. We should [Ginn & Heath] presents the essentials of plane catalogue, in which the peculiarities of a number judge the Taunton Library to have been selected geometry in good form for purposes of element of the contributing artists are boldly satirized with a wise generosity, and are sure its advantages ary instruction, peculiar typographical devices with pen and pencil.— Prof. George W. Greene's will be better understood now that so complete being employed to render the text clear and the pamphlets on his grandfather, Nathaniel Greene, and accurate a catalogue has been prepared. page attractive. We are confident that as a text- deserve the careful attention of all students of Printed in clear type, on manilla paper, the book book it will endure successfully the test of actual the Revolution, especially in view of statements is evidently made to wear, a quality which all use. We are equally pleased with the plan and respecting Gen. Greene in Mr. Bancroft's history. librarians will appreciate. appearance of Emma E. Bullet's First Lessons in Mr. Robert Lowell's poem on Burgoyne's Last French [Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co.], which, by | March was written for the hundredth celebration reason of its simple and piquant exercises, its of the Battle of Bemis Heights, Saratoga, and is distinct typography, its beautiful pictures, and worthy of both its occasion and its author.— its generally engaging look, seems to us a book Pettingill's Newspaper Directory for 1878 gives of books for interesting the child-mind in the useful particulars respecting the upwards of 8,000 study of the French language. It should be newspapers and other periodicals, published in installed on the lower shelf of every nursery book-case, where it may be in easy reach of the There has been begun, under the auspices of Johns Hopkins University, the publication of an American Journal of Mathematics, which bids fair to fill an important place in our strictly scientific literature, and, if we mistake not, to command attention abroad. Its working editor we take to be Mr. W. E. Story, formerly of Harvard United States, and is embellished with portra ts of a number of eminent editors. It is a valuable, and we judge trustworthy, index to the extent and character of our newspaper world. That right-hand helper of all book people, The Publishers' Weekly, has opened to its subscribers an "Accommodation Department," as a medium for the sole purchase and exchange of books (not recent). BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS. THE manner. sure, also, of his general fidelity to historic fact, Greenfield High School, in the Wesleyan Female as well as of his talent as a story teller. The College, Wilmington, Del., and clerk of the book is attractively printed and illustrated, and Franklin Savings Institution, Greenfield, which we hope that all who are interested in displacing | latter position she resigned as a matter of princithe trash which so abounds will take a part in ple, on the ground that a woman satisfactorily giving substantial encouragement to this new filling a man's situation should have a man's literary venture. [Lee & Shepard.] World Biographies. wages. Active home service in behalf of the Sanitary Commission during the war, a course of study in the School of Design at Philadelphia, and further educational labors in Greenfield filled HE story of Henri is short, sweet and out the years until 1875, when she was married serious, relating to the romantic adventures George Makepeace Towle. Mr. Towle is to Fayette Smith, Esq., of the Cincinnati bar, in of a little Savoyard, who was robbed of his home one of our most industrious, versatile, clever, which city she now lives. Mrs. Smith's literary in the vale of Chamouni by an avalanche, and and successful litterateurs, and it would seem as work began in 1862, in the Springfield Republican of his grandmother, his only protector, by death; if a premonition of his talents and of his useful and the Christian Register, for both of which and who came to Paris alone to seek his fortune. career thus far must have guided the parental papers she wrote many essays, tales, and letters, By the good help of Robespierre, the revolution-selection of his historic name. He was born in under the friendly personal encouragement of ist, he found it, though in rather an improbable Washington, D. C., August 27, 1841; attended their respective editors, the late lamented Samuel The book is, of course, a translation the Boston public schools, and the Lawrence, Bowles and Rev. T. J. Mumford. She also has from the French, and is written in a simple and Groton; and Wrentham Academies, Massachu- been a contributor to Harper's Monthly and Batouching style, to the end of very wholesome setts; and graduated at Yale College in 1861, zar, Lippincott's, and the Christian Union. She lessons of courage, honesty, and trust in God. and at the Harvard Law School in 1863. He has published bright and popular books descrip[W. B. Mucklow.] practised law in Boston during 1863-5; in 1865-6 tive of country life for children: Jolly Good Buried Treasure belongs to the class of boys' was on the editorial staff of the Boston Post; Times, or Child Life on a Farm (1875), and Jolly books concerning which we always find ourselves from 1866-70 was United States Consul at Good Times at School (1877); and she is also the in doubt. It is a story, of the rather rawly Nantes, France, and Bradford, England; in 1870 author of a tract, How to be Happy (Am. Un. romantic order, containing nothing positively bad, became managing editor of the Boston Commer- Assoc. 1867), and an essay on Juvenile Literature but introducing some rather unwholesome com-cial Bulletin; from 1871-76 was again upon the (1877) read before the Western Unitarian Conpany, not a little feverishly exciting incident, and Post as its foreign editor; and is now on the ference at Toledo, O., and printed in a New York a good deal of slang and coarse local dialect. regular staff of Appletons' Journal, the Art periodical. Authorship has been with Mrs. We confess to having read it with considerable Journal and the Youth's Companion. Mr. Smith an avocation rather than a vocation, but a interest for its pictures of "poor-white" life at Towle's literary work was begun at the age of wide circle of readers will hope for many more the South, which are probably as faithful as they twenty-one with three articles in the North good things from her ready pen. At present she are effective; and we have no doubt that the av- American Review on Count Cavour, De Tocque- is preparing a set of Sunday School cards for erage boy would pronounce it "first-rate; "but we ville, and Leigh Hunt, all of which attracted the Western Unitarian S. S. Society, of which should prefer to have him take up something else considerable attention. During his consular she is a director. if he would. [Porter & Coates.] residence in England he was a regular contrib The Boy Engineers is a book of a class which can only be praised, the difficulty with it being that it appeals to a limited taste. In the guise of a pleasant narrative, with an English flavor, it describes the fitting up of a boy's workshop, and the various work that afterward went on in it; such as the making of tools and machines, of a curious automatic clock, a steamengine, an electric apparatus, and much other plant requisite to the equipment of an amateur mechanical establishment. Plans and processes are minutely described, with the aid of drawings and specifications; the style is simple and easy, but manly and thoughtful; and the book will be accounted great spoil by any bright lad of a mechanical turn of mind, and will put him to the useful employment of his time too. [G. P. Put For utor to All the Year Round, Chambers' Journal, George Augustus Foxcroft, better known Once a Week, Good Words, Leisure Hour, London among newspaper readers by his chosen nom-deSociety, and the Gentleman's Magazine, and occa-plume, "Job Sass," was born in Boston, October sionally to other periodicals of like standing. In 7, 1815. He was a descendant of the Rev. this country he has been also a frequent contrib- Thomas Foxcroft, a graduate of Harvard Colutor to Harper's, Lippincott's, Scribner's and the lege in 1714, for fifty-two years pastor of the Atlantic Monthlies, and to many of the leading First Church, Boston, and son of Francis Foxweekly papers. In addition to all this work as a croft of Cambridge. He received an academic journalist he has published the following original education, and at the age of sixteen entered the works or translations: Glimpses of History store of B. C. Clark & Co., importers of tea, (1865); History of Henry V, King of England coffee, etc., and continued there until of age. In (1866); American Society, 2 vols. (London, 1870); 1837 he purchased a farm in Dedham, and marGaboriau's Mystery of Orcival (1874); Jules ried Harriet E. Goodrich, daughter of Levi Verne's Tour of the World in Eighty Days, Goodrich of Pittsfield. He lived in Dedham Doctor Ox, and The Wreck of the Chancellor until 1846, and built there the cottage now occu(1875-6); Viollet-le-Duc's Story of a House pied by Matthew Bolles, Esq., banker. (1875); The Principalities of the Danube, Mod- some years he did business in Boston as a broker, ern Greece, Montenegro and Bulgaria (1877); and but the literary tastes which he had indulged (1878) Vasco da Gama, the first of a series of since the age of fifteen by occasional contribuWe are glad that so competent and experienced "Heroes of History" for young people. Mr. tions to the press, led him to give up business a writer as Mr. Geo. M. Towle should have Towle was also editor of Harvey's Reminiscences pursuits and devote himself altogether to jourturned his hand to the production of literature of Webster (1877). His present residence is nalism. He was an accurate and enthusiastic under this general head, and we are altogether Brookline, Mass., where he has taken an active statistician, and prepared many bank and railready to congratulate him and the public upon part in town affairs, and is a trustee of the Pub-road tables for different papers and financial his story of Vasco da Gama, the first of a series lic Library. of "Heroes of History," in which are to be related the adventures of some of the noted explorers and chieftains of former times. The material is an excellent one to work in, and can be made to yield the best sort of reading for young people, boys especially. The voyage of Vasco da Gama, from Portugal to India, at the end of the fifteenth century, was of a very romantic sort, and in Mr. Towle's hands it is presented in a fascinating manner. nam's Sons.] We are Mrs. Mary P. Wells Smith. "P. Thorne." Mary Prudence Wells was born in Attica, N. Y., July 23, 1840, but in her early years her parents returned to a former home in Greenfield, Mass. She was educated at Bridgeport, Conn., Greenfield and Hartford, Conn., graduating at the Draper Female Seminary in the latter city, in June, 1859. Afterwards for several years she was successively an assistant teacher in the annuals. He wrote numerous articles on monetary topics for the daily press, and also contributed many entertaining sketches of domestic life and character. It was in 1849 that he first appeared in print over the signature of "Job Sass." Newspaper humorists were not so numerous at that time as at present, and the vein which he opened and diligently worked for many years was altogether new. His articles depended largely for their effect upon peculiarities of spelling and grammar, which, however, were |